Veteran journalist Howie Severino reminded investigative journalists to stay true to their traditional role as “truth seekers’’ but challenged them to fight “irrelevance” by rethinking how their investigative reports are presented to the public.

At the opening of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism’s (PCIJ) Third National Conference on Investigative Journalism on April 30, Severino called attention to the threat of government leaders and officials who try to make the press irrelevant.  

A case in point, he said, was a leading candidate’s decision to snub media-organized debates and journalists covering him during the campaign for the 2022 presidential elections. He did not name the candidate, but he was referring to Marcos.  

“And he showed the political community that it was a winning strategy. In this milieu, journalists don’t need to be threatened any more, because we can simply be ignored and considered just part of the noise,’’ he added.  

This concern, Severino said, was “being played out on many levels.”

He cited the recent public outcry over a resort with an Olympic-sized pool that was built in the Chocolate Hills in Bohol province, with the Senate vowing investigate it, and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources shutting it down.  

The outrage was triggered by a travel vlogger who posted a video of the resort on Facebook in early March. But in truth, as early as August last year reporter Caecent No-ot Magsumbol wrote a three-part special report on it for The Freeman. 

In previous eras this would have been “a bombshell.’’ Magsumbol’s report last year, however, elicited only a “tepid response,’’ he observed. 

“There are lessons to be gleaned from this example and I don’t want to pre-empt the discussions that Caecent and others will be having,’’ Severino said. “But I like to think that the virtues of diligence and rigor required to do investigative reporting were alive in that report and alive in many of us gathered here today.’’

He added: “We just need to rethink how we package and distribute our valuable work so it creates the impact that it deserves.’’

The IJCon carried the theme, “Innovating Investigative Journalism: Towards Collaboration and Public Engagement.’’ 

Severino said the conference should be a venue for tackling the journalists’ “changing role – no longer as gatekeepers in a world where gates no longer exist.’’  

“Yet the world still needs truth and truth seekers,’’ he said. “Journalists must now be more like eagle-eyed guides with flashlights in a dark cave, seeking out and illuminating what’s true and important in a place dense with falsehood and trivia.’’ 

“If we do our jobs well enough, that role could evolve into north stars, essential again for helping navigate society’s way forward,’’ he concluded.  

More than 100 journalists, communicators, civil society representatives; students and professors are attending the three-day conference.  

“You were all selected to participate based on one general criteria: you believe investigative journalism is important for a well functioning democracy,’’ PCIJ executive director Carmela Fonbuena said in her welcome remarks. 

Among the participants are a rookie reporter and a community journalist who are eager to learn more about the fundamentals of investigative reporting, according to her.   

“When you come to think about it, this is what PCIJ has always been about. PCIJ is a small organization if we count the less than a dozen employees or the two dozens or so editorial consultants and fellows who work together to produce PCIJ’s  investigative reports over a year,’’ Fonbuena said.

PCIJ’s “strength’’ lies in its network in the country and Southeast Asia, as well as in fellows who train aspiring investigative journalists, she said. 

“It lies in the community that doesn’t hesitate to support our colleagues under attack; the student volunteers who are willing and eager to perform various roles to help PCIJ run the conference,’’ she added.   

“PCIJ’s strength also lies in our allies in the civil society, the academe, and in the government who support our practice, and who agree to collaborate when called upon to share their expertise and resources so investigative journalists can do their work,’’ she said. — with reports from TJ Burgonio, Hanah Reformado and John Dewey Ocfemia